“I’m not a bad person! I don’t steal anyone’s things or hurt anyone else!” It’s easy for us to define holiness in such negative terms. But in today’s passage, Moses makes it clear that true holiness requires taking an active interest in the welfare of others.

The last verse of the passage makes this point clearly, once we understand the cultural context. In semi-arid countries like Israel, people often have flat roofs on their houses, and they can thus use them as gathering places. So it was just a common-sense safety measure to put a fence around one’s rooftop, just as we would do for a balcony, or for a swimming pool for that matter. If we don’t go out of our way to ensure the safety and health of our guests, we aren’t showing very much love for them, are we?

But no fence is failsafe. So, what if you know your neighbor never lets his dog out of his yard unless it’s on a leash? And what if you see that dog running free down the street? If you love your neighbor, you’ll try to take his dog back home (verse 1). In fact, you’ll take care of any other kind of property that he loses (verse 3).

And we should do this not only out of love for our neighbor, but for his animals as well. For we must not just take them home when they’re lost. We must also help them when they are exhausted from carrying burdens that are too heavy (v. 4). In fact, we must be good stewards even of the wildlife that doesn’t belong to any one individual, making sure that their populations are able to recover even while we harvest some of them for our own consumption (verses 6-7) or to regulate their population. Overhunting is simply selfish, while conservation of natural resources is one of the clearest ways we show love for God and for one another.

No, just keeping to ourselves and minding our own business isn’t holiness – it’s indifference. In fact, if we fail to care for the health and welfare of our neighbors, their animals, and the natural world around us, how can we honestly say we love them?

Deuteronomy 22:1-8 (NASB)

“You shall not see your countryman’s ox or his sheep straying away, and pay no attention to them; you shall certainly bring them back to your countryman.
2 “And if your countryman is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall remain with you until your countryman looks for it; then you shall restore it to him.
3 “And thus you shall do with his donkey, and you shall do the same with his garment, and you shall do likewise with anything lost by your countryman, which he has lost and you have found. You are not allowed to neglect them.
4 “You shall not see your countryman’s donkey or his ox fallen down on the way, and pay no attention to them; you shall certainly help him to raise them up.
5 “A woman shall not wear man’s clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God.
6 “If you happen to come upon a bird’s nest along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young;
7 you shall certainly let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, in order that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days.
8 “When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone falls from it.